what john tester needed that day was political cover from max baucus, a little help. john tester needed to be able to say, when he went back to montana, hey, max voted for it, too. now, when senator tester goes back to montana, he's going to be challenged with, hey, baucus voted against it, why didn't you? the junior senator from arizona got exactly the kind of political cover that john tester would have appreciated from max baucus. the senior senator from arizona, john mccain, voted for expanding background checks. but that wasn't enough to pump up jeff flake's courage to do the right tlihing. senator flake, who has to explain his vote to the very same voters john mccain is accountable to followed the lead of his party instead of his senior senator and voted against background checks, something that 90% of america wanted. and in casting his vote, senator flake had to rewrite himself. karen teves wrote a letter to senator flake asking him to support gun safety legislation. she told the senator about her son alex, who was murdered while shielding his girlfriend from bu